


Ain't that a Kick in the Head

by JoeiMarie21



Category: Attack on Titan, Shingeki no Kyojin
Genre: M/M, Multi Chapter, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 11:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1426132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeiMarie21/pseuds/JoeiMarie21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I let that sink in, three months, “So, you’re telling me, that you two would fool around in the very same bed I came home to sleep in every night!” She flinches as I shout. She doesn’t answer me, she just looks ashamed. “I understand, what it’s like to not be accepted, but did I really deserve to be lied to for an entire year, and then some? I always tried my hardest to make you happy, what did I do wrong?” I end in a whisper, tears threatening to fall.</p><p>Marco's life falls apart as he learns that his wife has been cheating on him, so he takes some time off and moves to France, where he meets Jean Kirstein.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ain't that a Kick in the Head

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright Christa?”  I ask, running my hands through my wife’s long blond hair. She was lying in our bed with a cold washcloth over her forehead, she’ll get horrendous migraines and she can’t do anything but lie there and wait for it to go away.

“Yes, I’ll be fine you goober, you’ve been looking forward to this dinner with Eren for a month now, you haven’t seen him in a year, you need to go.” She smiles at me and pats my thigh, looking up at me with her big blue eyes.

I stroke her cheek with my thumb, “But Eren was looking forward to seeing you too.” I argue.

“Marco, honey, you need to go.” I sigh, I know she’s right, and even if I stayed with her, she would still have her migraine and I’d probably just annoy her.

“You’re right, I’ll bring you back something ok?” She smiles and nods, “Just text me what you want and I’ll get it to go.” I kiss her on the forehead before jumping up to grab my keys of the bedside table.

Eren is an old friend, back from uni, but after we graduated, me with a master’s in architecture, that I haven’t used, and him, he specialized in languages. He can speak 5 different languages, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. He travels the world, working as a translator for business men. It pays well, far better than my freelance writing. I’ve written a total of one book, and it hasn’t sold well, at all. We don’t talk about it. Despite Eren travelling so much, we’ve kept in touch, and when he has an extensive amount of time off, he stays at his home in France, but every once in a while, he’ll come back here, to London for us to catch up.

I walk into the pub we decided to meet at, and immediately see him sitting at the bar, flirting with a waitress. Good old Eren, suddenly, a wicked idea pops into my head, I walk over to the bar and throw my arm around his shoulders. “Hi sweetie! How’s it going?” I say in an obnoxiously sweet voice. I look at the waitress, “It’s our first year anniversary!” I say smiling at her, she smiles back and walks away.

“Damn it Marco!” Eren says angrily and shrugs my arm off his shoulders. “I almost had her! And I didn’t even need to pull out the French!” I laughed and sat down next to him. “I haven’t gotten laid for months! I’m about to burst! Do you know what it’s like?! It’s awful!”

“Actually, I do. Christa and I are going through a bit of a dry spell.” I say as a waiter gives me a glass of water.

“Really? How long?” he asks looking apologetic.

“Two months.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry man. Do you have any idea why?” I shake my head as a waiter comes by to take our orders. He writes it down and walks away.

“Where is Christa anyway?” He asks.

“She’s at home, one of her migraines again.” I say sipping at my water.

Eren purses his lips, “Dude, ok, you know you’re my best friend, and I love Christa, but have you considered that she might be cheating?”

“What makes you say that?” I say, it comes out angrier than I intended.

He puts his hands up defensively, “I’m just saying man, she always seems to conveniently get these migraines when you leave the house.”

I let that sink in a little, he’s right. But… she wouldn’t do that… would she? My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I dig it out, it’s a text from Christa.

_Could you just bring me some chicken strips please? And some crisps?_

I text back _,_

_Of course. :)_

Then I shove my phone back in my pocket, and say, “She wouldn’t…”

Thankfully Eren drops the subject as the waiter brings our food. I also put in Christa’s to go order. Eren and I chat about random things while we eat, mostly just how we’ve been. The last time I saw him was a year ago, at my wedding. Of course we had talked on the phone, but it wasn’t the same as face to face conversation.

“Hey, why don’t we go see a late showing once we get done here? There’s this new slasher flick playing.” Eren asks as he leaves his money on the counter.

“Sure, let me just run this home to Christa.” I say picking up her to-go meal. Eren nods and follows me out of the pub, my flat is just around the corner, so it doesn’t take us long to get there. I walk up the stairs and start walking to our bedroom, leaving Eren to fiddle with the book case in the living room. Before I reach our door however, it opens, and my sister Ymir walks out and closes the door. Now, usually, I’d be happy to see her, but not standing in my hallway half naked. I just stare at her, my mouth hanging open as the full implication sets in. I try to say something, but my mouth won’t work, that’s when I hear Christa yell from inside the room.

“Hurry up Ymir! Marco shouldn’t be home for at least another hour and I want you at least twice!” I scratch the back of my head and hand the to-go box to Ymir.

“Here, give that to her.” I say, my voice clipped. She looks at me sympathetically, but before she can say anything I turn around and walk away. Eren was standing at the other end of the hallway looking angry. I grab his arm and drag him out with me before he can do anything stupid. I hear Ymir shouting after me, but I don’t stop till we’re out in the street again. I stand out front of my flat, emotions flooding through me. I’m sad, I’m angry, but most of all, I feel betrayed. Christa and I were always honest with each other, or at least I thought we were. I sit on the step in front of our building and put my head in my hands. Eren puts his arm around my shoulders and just sits there with me.

“You were right.” I say, my voice cracking.

“I’m sorry, I wish I wasn’t.” He says.

“With my own sister… why?”

About a minute later, I hear our door open. I turn around and look, it’s Christa.

“Marco! I’m so sorry! Please, please come back in and we can talk about this.”

I shake my head and open my mouth to say something but Eren beats me to it. “What could you say that would possibly make this better?!” He shouts.

“Please Marco, I can’t lose you…” She’s crying, Ymir appears behind her, staying silent.

“You think he’s going to stay?! After what you’ve done! You don’t deserve him!” He grabs my arm and pulls me away. Christa is yelling after us, I turn and see Ymir grabbing her, stopping her from following us.

After we round the corner, Eren stops and says, “I’m sorry, I should have kept quiet, it was your problem. I shouldn’t have dragged you away either.”

I shake my head, “No, you said what I couldn’t, it’s alright. Had you not pulled me away, I probably would have crawled back to her.”

“I’ll help you through this, I promise. You can stay at my hotel tonight, they were out of single rooms, so I have an extra bed.” He says as he starts walking again.

I nod and follow him, “Thank you.”

“Of course, you’re my best friend.”

I feel like crying, but for some reason, I can’t. I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket, but I make no move to answer it. I know it’s either Christa or Ymir, but I don’t want to talk to them, not now. After we reach the hotel, the buzzing stops.

I sit on one of the beds and put my face in my hands and I laugh. I don’t know why, but I just laugh. Eren looks at me with an eyebrow raised. His expression makes me laugh harder. “My sister, can you believe that? My own god damned sister!” I laugh again. “It could have been anyone, it’s easy to hate a stranger, but my own sister…” I put my hands on my face and look up at the ceiling, blinking back tears that finally decided to show up. I feel Eren put his hand on my shoulder.  “What am I going to do? I mean obviously, we’re going to split up, get a divorce, but, who’s going to get what? Should get what? Should I give her the flat? Or should I keep it? What do we do with the wedding album? Throw it away? Burn it? If she takes the flat, where am I going to live?” My breath is coming in short pants, and I can feel myself start to panic.

“Hey! Hey, calm down Marco! It’s going to all work out all right? Just don’t think of it all at once. Baby steps ok?” Eren says rubbing my back, my breathing calms down after a minute or so and I nod and wipe away the tears in my eyes. “Doesn’t your mom have that vacation home in France? I’m sure you can live there and she won’t mind. You’ll also be close to me, you know, in case you need anything.”

I smile, I’m lucky to have such a great friend. “Yeah, you’re right.”

He smiles back, “For tonight though, there’s going to be no more freaking out, you’ll sleep here, and then I’ll help you deal with everything tomorrow alright?”

***

         I slept surprisingly well. The first thing I do is look at my phone. 48 missed calls from Christa, 17 from Ymir, 78 text messages from Christa and 45 from Ymir, I didn’t bother looking at them, I just deleted them. Eren walks out of the bathroom, dressed in a jumper and jeans, his hair is damp and sticking out every which way. “How do you feel?” he asks.

         I shake my head, “I’m just dreading what comes next. We were so happy… why did she have to go and do this.” He walks over and pats my shoulder.

        “Go shower, you’re gross. I should have a new shirt you can wear, it’ll be a little tight though, you’re bigger than me.” He says rifling through his suitcase and throwing a t-shirt at me.

        “That’s fine, thank you.” He nods and I go to shower. I look at myself in the mirror, my eyes are red, and my face is paler than usual, making my freckles stand out more, and my dark hair is sticking up in the back. I turn the water on waiting for it to heat up, the pressure is crap like any other hotel. Once the water is the right temperature, I step in and sit down. Just letting the water run over me. I put my head in my hands and finally just cry. I love her, how could she do this? I think back to the day I met her, we met in a café, she had her hair tied back in a low ponytail, and she was wearing a blue sweater. I had instantly been drawn to her, she was gorgeous. I remember the first time I knew I was in love with her, I was sick, and she brought over soup and Singing in the Rain. I remember when I proposed to her, we were at my place, the night after our first time, I woke up with her next to me, and I knew, then, that I wanted to wake up next to her for every day of the rest of my life.

         I don’t know how long I was in there, but I hear Eren knock on the door and shout, “Hey! You haven’t drowned have you?”

         I shout back, “Shut up!” I hear him laugh and walk away. I shut off the water and get out. Toweling myself dry and putting my jeans back on, I look at the ridiculously small green t-shirt Eren had handed to me. I sigh and squeeze into it, it surprisingly stretches and isn’t as tight as I thought it would be. I walk out of the bathroom, rubbing the towel through my hair. Eren is sitting in a chair talking on the phone, he’s speaking in French, so I don’t understand a word of what he’s saying. He sees me and ends the conversation.

        “Hey, ok, so I called Christa and Ymir, we’re going to meet at your flat to talk. Is that alright?” I nod and he continues. “I also just got off the phone with your mother, turns out Ymir had already called her last night and told her the situation. She was furious with her, so when I called, she said it was alright for you to stay at her home in France. She’s in the Caribbean? Did you know that?”

        “Yeah, her and dad called me about a month ago to tell me they were going to be there for a while.” I say pulling my shoes and socks on.

        Eren shakes his head, “Man, I wish I could travel like they do.”

       “You do idiot! You’ve been how many different places?”

        “Yeah! But it’s all with stuffy businessmen.” He says wrinkling his nose, he sighs, “Are you ready to do this? You could wait to sort it all out until you’ve had time to think.”

         I shake my head, “No, I don’t want to prolong it, let’s just get it over with.” I say grabbing my phone and my keys. He nods and we leave the hotel. We walk in a comfortable silence, except for an occasional comment from Eren.

        “I planned on flying back to France today, on a late flight, I managed to score you a ticket as well.” He said as we came up to my street. “That is if you want to leave right away, it’s no big deal either way, I can exchange the ticket for a later one.”

         “No, I’ll leave with you tonight, thank you so much Eren. I don’t think I’d be able to this without you.” We stop in front of my flat and I feel my throat tighten, but I walk in regardless, I feel Eren follow me in. I walk to the living room, and see Ymir sitting on the couch, and I hear Christa in the kitchen. Ymir stands looking uncomfortable, “Hey, Christa’s in the kitchen making tea.” I nod and sit on out other couch. Eren sits next to me, and we fall into an uncomfortable silence. Christa emerges from the kitchen a minute later with a tray, her eyes are red, like she’s been crying all night.

          She pours each of us a cup and passes them out, Eren’s the only one to drink his. “What’s the asshole doing here?” Ymir asks. I glare at her, and start to say something, but Eren’s quicker.

         “Don’t talk about yourself like that Ymir.” I can practically hear him smirk, and I have to suppress a laugh.

          Ymir clenches her fists, but stops herself from shouting something back. “Look, we didn’t come here to argue, this is between Christa and Marco, neither of us really have any other right to be here besides the fact that they asked us to be.” She said.

          Eren nodded, “In that case, why don’t you and I go round the corner and have a beer, while these two talk.” Ymir looks at Christa, she nods in response. Eren’s hand claps my shoulder, and he says, “Come on then, I’ll buy.” The two of them exit, leaving only Christa, me, and silence.

           I speak first, asking the questions that have been running through my mind since last night, “Why? Why _Ymir_? Why my own sister? Am I not good enough for you anymore? Do you not love me anymore?”

           She shakes her head, “No Marco, no, I still love you I do, but just not… romantically. Truth is, I never did. I was using you, as a cover up, my parents never accepted me, they never accepted the fact that I was gay!” She was yelling and tears were collecting in her eyes. “Because of them, I was so afraid to be myself! I just wanted to make them happy! Marco, I do love you, you are a wonderful guy, you were so sweet to me, I wanted to try, to try and be with you. It made my parents so happy, and I was happy, I was able to lie to myself, and pretend that I was something I’m not. I disgusted myself, and I knew I was hurting you, because I was pushing you away, but I couldn’t break it off.” She was crying hysterically at that point.

            I was hurt, but I understood how she felt, it was some time before my parents accepted the fact that I was bisexual, I couldn’t be mad at her for that. “How long were you with Ymir?” I ask, my voice surprisingly calm.

            She sniffled, “The business trip I took 5 months ago to Ireland, she was there too, we just started talking, we started out as friends, I had no intentions of…but I started to fall for her…” Her voice trailed off and she looked down at her hands.

           “How long were you together romantically?”

           She hesitates, “Three months. She would come over whenever you went out.”

           I let that sink in, three months, “So, you’re telling me, that you two would fool around in the very same bed I came home to sleep in every night!” She flinches as I shout. She doesn’t answer me, she just looks ashamed. “I understand, what it’s like to not be accepted, but did I really deserve to be lied to for an entire year, and then some? I always tried my hardest to make you happy, what did I do wrong?” I end in a whisper, tears threatening to fall.

           “Nothing! Nothing! Marco, I’m so sorry, you were perfect to me, I don’t deserve you! I truly don’t.” She sobs into her hands, “You’re going to leave me aren’t you?”

           “Yes, I’m going back to France with Eren tonight. I need some time away from you, and everything before we start to discuss a divorce.” She nods, and I stand. “I’m going to go pack a bag.” I walk to our room leaving her on the couch quietly crying to herself. Once I’m in the room, I text Eren,

_We’re done, you two can come back._

            I put my phone back in my pocket and pull my suitcase out of the closet, and begin stuffing all of my clothes into it. I try and take everything, I didn’t want to forget anything and have to come back. Once I have all my clothes, I grab another bag and throw in my bathroom things, I feel my phone buzz.

            _Alright, we’re on our way._

            I grab my backpack, and walk over to my desk, grabbing my laptop, my kindle, my phone charger, and anything else and shove it all in. I’m mentally checking that I have everything, when I hear Eren and Ymir walk in. I poke my head out the door, and see Ymir immediately go to Christa’s side, and Eren sees me, and starts walking down the hallway. I pop back into the room, shrugging my back pack on, and moving to grab my suitcase, but Eren appears and takes it from me. I grab my final bag and follow him into the hallway.

            I look at Ymir holding Christa in the living room, and I’m not as angry as I was moments ago, because that’s when I see it. Ymir cares for her, truly. I felt a surge of happiness, Ymir had never cared for much, and now that she found someone, it did make me happy, I just wished it wasn’t the girl I had fallen in love with, but _C’est la vie_ , I guess. I turn around and follow Eren out the door.

***

            Eren and I just chilled at the hotel until it was time for our flight, we ordered room service and watched terrible rental movies, but it’s what I needed. At four, we called a taxi, and left for the airport. An hour later, after going through customs, we were on the plane, and about an hour after that, we arrived in France. We took a taxi from the airport to Eren’s house, where we just crashed.

            The next morning, I woke up in Eren’s guest room, and heard music blasting from the kitchen, it was old American music, the 50s or 60s maybe, I wasn’t sure, but I heard Eren singing along horribly and off key. I smiled and stretched, my heart sank as I remembered why I was there, but I ignored it and got out of bed, still in my pajama pants, and not bothering to put a shirt on I walked to the kitchen. The music got obnoxiously louder, the closer I got, but I stopped to admire Eren’s home, it was in the country, so it was way bigger than my tiny flat. The ceiling rose when you walked into the living room, which had two couches arranged in an L shape facing a giant T.V. and the kitchen was on the other side of the living room, closed off by a door, but it had a window and counter that opened to the living room. Eren had stools set by the counter, so I assumed he used it as a dining table.

            “Hey mambo mambo Italiano try an enchilada with a fish baccala! Hey goomba I love how you dance the rumba! But take some advice paisano learn-a how to mambo! If you're gonna be a square you ain't-a gonna go anywhere! Hey mambo mambo Italiano hey hey mambo mambo Italiano!Go go Joe shake like a tiavanna! E lo che se dice you get happy in the pizza when you Mambo Italiano!” Eren was dancing around the kitchen, quite confident in his horrendous voice. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as I sat at one of the stools.

            He takes a pan of the stove, and shuts off the burner, “Morning buddy! I made some waffles and bacon!” He said turning down his music and grabbing two plates.

            “Do you want any help?” I ask.

            “Nope! Don’t worry your freckled face, I got it.” He served up our plates and sat mine in front of me. He stayed on the kitchen side and grabbed a remote, turning on the telly. It was all in French. Wonderful. I ignored it and set about eating the food he had made for me.

            Taking his last bite, he took his plate to the dishwasher, and said, “When you get done eating, I can take you to your mom’s place, if you want.” I nod my head and he shut off the T.V. and went to his room. He had left the radio on, I didn’t know what the song was called, but I liked it.

_My head keeps spinning_

_I go to sleep and keep grinning_

_If this is just the beginning, my life's gonna be beautiful_

_I've got sunshine enough to spread_

_It's like the fella said_

_Tell me quick ain't love like a kick in the head_

_Like the fella once said_

_Ain't love like a kick in the head._

             I finished my food and set my plate in the dishwasher, going to my room to get ready for the day. I shower, and put on some clean clothes, as I’m putting my socks and shoes on, I hear Eren knock on the door, “Come in!” I shout.

            “Hey, you ready?” I nod and grab my bags, he insists on taking my suitcase again, and we head out to his garage.

            I whistled, he had a bright green Ferrari, what a bitch. He smirked and put my suitcase in the trunk, I set my other bags in alongside it and he closed the trunk. He pressed a button on his keys and the doors opened up, sliding smoothly into position. I shake my head, “Show off.” I said smiling. He laughed and we got in the car. It was only about a twenty minute drive from his place to my mom’s vacation house. A full twenty minutes filled with Eren singing his damned American oldies music.

            I sent a silent thank you once we reached the house, and I practically jumped out of it. He noticed, “Aww, Marco, don’t you like my singing?”

            I rolled my eyes as he laughed. We grabbed my bags and walked up to the house, we were greeted by another man, he looked to be about our age, he had sandy hair, cut in an undercut, to reveal the darker hair underneath, he was a few inches shorter than me and he had warm brown eyes. “ _Salut, mon nom est Jean Kirstein._ ” He said.

            “ _Bonjour, je suis Eren Jaeger, et c'est Marco Bodt._ ” Eren said extending his hand, the other man shook it, and I did the same. “ _Parlez-vous anglais?_ ”

            “ _Non, désolé, Mme Bodt m'a engagé à venir prendre soin de la maison pendant que son fils est resté ici_.” The man said, Eren nodded and turned to me.

            “This is Jean Kirstein, your mother hired him to take care of the house while you were here. He doesn’t speak any English though.” I rub the back of my neck, I didn’t need anyone to take care of me, but I nodded.

             “Alright, that’s fine.”

             “ _Ne vous inquiétez pas, je vais rester sur votre chemin. Et j'ai ma propre voiture, pour me conduire à la maison._ ”Jean said. I looked at Eren to translate.

             “He said, not to worry, he won’t get in the way, and he has his own car to drive home with.” Eren says.

              “Alright.” I say, and Eren nods at Jean, who takes my suitcase from Eren and leads us into the house.

              Jean shows me to the bedroom, and I lay my things down, I nod awkwardly to him as a thank you, and he nods back. I walk back to the living room to say goodbye to Eren and Jean goes to a different part of the house. Eren is standing by the patio door, looking at the lake that sits in the back of the house. “How pretty.” He says. I nod, and we stand there for a bit.

              Finally I say, “Thank you, so much Eren. I’ll pay you back for the plane tick-”

              He cuts me off, waving his hand at me in a dismissive gesture, “Don’t worry about it, that’s what friends are for. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call, or if you just want to hang out.”

              “I will, thank you.” I say pulling him into a hug. After that, he leaves, and I’m left standing by the patio door thinking just how much your life can change in a matter of hours.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was watching Love Actually, and I got this lovely little plot bunny. All of the french translating was done by google translate, because I don't speak French, so if anyone wants to help me with the French translating, message me on my tumblr, iwillalwaysbetheretobringyouback. :-)


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